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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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September 2nd,
2008 - Veteran Acquitted in Landmark Case Wants Police Job Back |
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Veteran Acquitted in Landmark
Case Wants Riverside Police Job Back By Sonja Bjelland & Gene Ghiotto The Riverside Press-Enterprise September 2, 2008 A former Riverside police
officer acquitted of war crimes can apply to be an officer again, officials
say. But the city is in a hiring
freeze, so it is unclear when he could actually start, said Chris Lanzillo,
president of the Riverside Police Officers Association. Jose Luis Nazario Jr., 28,
was a probationary officer with the Riverside Police Department when a Naval
Criminal Investigative Service special agent arrested him in August 2007. The department immediately
fired Nazario, who was eight weeks from the end of his probationary period. Nazario was accused of
fatally shooting two unarmed insurgents and ordering the killing of two
others in 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq, while serving in the Marine Corps during
Operation Phantom Fury. He was acquitted Thursday
after the first-ever civilian court trial of a veteran for combat actions. After the verdict, Nazario
walked over to Police Department headquarters in downtown Riverside, saying
he was asking for his job back. Nazario has no rights to
back pay or seniority because he was probationary, Lanzillo said. "In the state of
California, you have no recourse if you don't make probation," Lanzillo
said. Nazario must reapply for a
job and the department can accept him or not, said lawyer John Barnett who
represents officers in criminal cases. Barnett said officers
sometimes are rehired after being acquitted of a crime, but at other times
departments consider the liability risk as too great, Barnett said. "When someone's been
acquitted you think they should be given their job back," Barnett said. "But sometimes the
departments feel they have an insurance problem." The Police Department
considers personnel matters confidential and won't discuss them publicly,
spokesman Steven Frasher said. The city does not have
specific rules for reinstating an officer in such circumstances, said
spokesman Austin Carter. Normally, the application to
hiring process could take up to four months, Lanzillo said. Nazario's
application could move more quickly because some work has already been done. "As far as I'm
concerned, under the circumstances he should be back in the position
immediately," Lanzillo said. "We want to make sure this guy gets
taken care of and pushed through the process." City Councilman Mike
Gardner, a member of the council's Public Safety Committee, said that if the
arrest was the only reason for the firing, "I would think they would
look at reinstating him." As part of the war crimes
investigation, a member of Nazario's squad in Iraq called him in a recorded
phone call. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was to chat with Nazario under the guise
that Nelson also wanted to be a police officer and was concerned about
talking about the shootings during the job interview. In it, Nazario said working
as an officer was like the TV show "Cops," where they ride around
in a car and respond to calls. In the recording, Nazario
describes responding to a domestic violence call with several other officers,
stating they "beat the (expletive) out of this (expletive) and find a
reason to take him to jail." U.S. District Court Judge
Stephen Larson did not allow that portion of the tape to be played for the
jury because he ruled it was bravado, without any backing. Staff writer Doug Haberman
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_N_nazario03.49fcf85.html |